1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a liquid ejecting apparatus such as an ink jet printer, and particularly to the liquid ejecting apparatus of which a main body mounts liquid storing members and which is capable of supplying liquids stored in the liquid storing members to a liquid ejecting heads by connecting the liquid storing members and the plurality of liquid ejecting heads through liquid passage members.
2. Related Art
An exemplary liquid ejecting apparatus that includes a liquid ejecting head capable of ejecting liquids and allows the liquid ejecting head to eject various liquids includes an image printing apparatus such as an ink jet printer that ejects and lands ink droplets on a paper sheet or the like as an ejection target (print medium) to perform a printing. In addition, recently, the liquid ejecting apparatus is not limited to the image printing apparatus, but applied to various manufacturing apparatus. For example, in a display manufacturing apparatus manufacturing a liquid display, a plasma display, an organic electro luminescence (EL) display, a plane emission display (FED), or the like, the liquid ejecting apparatus is used to eject various materials of liquid forms such as a color material or an electrode on a pixel formation area, an electrode formation area, or the like.
Like a business printer or the like performing a printing on a large-scale print paper sheet, the liquid ejecting apparatus that uses a relatively large amount of liquids has a configuration (off-carriage type) in which a liquid supply source (an ink cartridge) is arranged in an apparatus main body as a liquid storing member, a relay unit (which is a type of a liquid introduction pressure adjusting member and also serves as a pressure adjusting valve controlling a pressure variation at the time of supplying ink) for introducing ink stored in the liquid supply source to a liquid ejecting head is mounted in the liquid ejecting head, the liquid supply source and the relay unit are connected to a flexible liquid supply tube (liquid passage member) to supply the ink stored in the liquid supply source to the liquid ejecting head through the liquid supply tube (for example, see Patent Document 1). Moreover, in the liquid ejecting head disclosed in Patent Document 1, the relay unit is arranged on a top surface (surface opposite a nozzle opening formation surface) of the liquid ejecting head, the liquid supply tube is arranged on a top surface of the relay unit. In this way, it is possible to restrain an increase in a size of the liquid ejecting head laterally.
Patent Document 1: JP-A-2005-219229 (FIG. 8)
The liquid ejecting head generally includes a driving board (circuit board) mounted with a driving IC or the like for driving pressure generating means (for example, a piezoelectric vibrator, a heater element, or the like). A connector connecting a flexible wiring cable such as a flexible flat cable (FFC) is disposed in the driving board. In addition, an electrical signal such as a driving signal transmitted from a controller of the apparatus main body through the wiring cable connected to the connector is transmitted to the circuit board.
Since the liquid ejecting head disclosed in Patent Document 1 is designed to reduce a size, the liquid ejecting head has a configuration in which both connectors for connecting the liquid supply tube and the FFC are arranged on the top surface (top surface of the liquid introduction pressure adjusting member) of the relay unit mounted in the liquid ejecting head. In this way, when a plurality of liquid ejecting heads are arranged in a zigzag shape in a connection member to be used in the same way as a line head, numerous liquid supply tubes and FFCs are arranged on the top surfaces of the relay units of the liquid ejecting heads. Accordingly, it is difficult to detach and attach the liquid supply tubes and the FFCs, and thus a problem may arise in that assembly or maintenance is inconvenient.
In order to solve such a problem, it is conceivable that the connectors for connecting the FFCs on sidewalls of the liquid ejecting heads are arranged. However, when the plurality of the liquid ejecting heads 70 are arranged in the zigzag shape so that nozzle arrays 71 become parallel, as shown in FIG. 9, a direction of the liquid ejecting heads 70 can be also uniform. At this time, since the FFCs 72 of the liquid ejecting heads 70 arranged in one row are arranged on a sidewall 73 between rows of the FFCs 72, it is difficult to shorten a distance between the rows of the liquid ejecting head 70 and a problem may arise in that a size of the apparatus increases. Accordingly, in order to solve the problem, as shown in FIG. 10, the liquid ejecting heads 70 (70′) can be closely arranged by reversing the liquid ejecting heads 70′ in one row by 180°, that is, by opposing sidewalls 74 on which the connectors of the liquid ejecting heads 70 (70′) are not arranged. In this case, however, the driving signal supplied to the liquid ejecting heads 70′ in the reversed side cannot help being reset to match the reverse direction. Accordingly, the liquid ejecting apparatus may not be used in general, and thus it may be not easy to realize the liquid ejecting apparatus.